Chapter 2: Boys, Farewell Loneliness

"Hakkai, are they ok?" Goku asked looking at the girls who leant on his shoulders. Gojyo lit a cigarette and took a deep drag of the smoke into his lungs. Hakkai tore the cigarette from his lips and flicked it away. "There are two young ladies unconscious beside you, have some consideration please Gojyo" he said without taking his eyes off of the road. "Whoa, Hakkai" Gojyo crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at Sanzo. "Saved by a-" Sanzo smashed Gojyo across the face with the fan and settled back into the seat.

Hakkai looked back at his sister and the stranger he had saved. The young girl he had never seen before. There were tears on his sister's face - was she crying in her sleep? He caught Sanzo looking at her, Sanzo noticed and looked away. His hand on his gun (his real gun, not the one made of flesh ;) his eyes on the road before them. He brushed his fingers through his blonde hair and looked at Hakkai "What?" He shook his head and returned to driving, glancing in the mirror to watch his sister every now and then and the beautiful stranger beside her.

Hakkai stopped the jeep and picked his sister up in his arms, Goku picked up Kerri and they walked towards the house that Hakkai knew was hers. And pushed the door open. He lay her down on the sofa and looked at her.

He regretted leaving like he had…but they had taken Kanan, he had to save her…did she expect him to seriously stay around and let Kanan get killed. Then he had been turned Youkai, and taken by Sanzo to see the three aspects, he had, he was ashamed to say, forgotten she was here.

"Where can I put her Hakkai" Goku asked as Hakkai jolted fro his thoughts and pointed to the other couch as Goku set Kerri down on it as Hakkai looked once more at Ebony before sighing and going to get some bandages, he didn't want to heal them while they were unconscious, they might get mad at him for touching them, especially when they were asleep, better to just bandage what he could while they were asleep, and heal them when they awoke.

After they had been tended to he went to make some food for everyone, no doubt they would be hungry when they awoke, and Goku's stomach could already be heard growling from across the room, it was time for some food.

They were all eating when one of them woke, it was Ebony, she woke with a pained groan as she gently touched her aching head.

"Ouchies" she muttered sitting up stiffly, her whole body ached, she shuddered remembering what had happened only a few hours before as she swung her legs off the couch and looked around, she was home, there was Kerri sleeping on the couch across from her and she smiled softly before standing as her nose smelled some delicious food...was that…Hakkai's cooking? Sure it wasn't as good as Kerri's, but it was still wonderful food.

"Is that food?" Ebony asked as she sat down heavily in a chair as Hakkai nodded with a soft smile as he handed her a plate already full of food as she sighed in relief and dug in, it felt like years since she had last eaten good food.

Gojyo was sitting across from her snickering about something as he glanced at Sanzo.

"Saved by a gi-" he began again but once again Sanzo silenced him with force as Sanzo then, to make his point about keeping quiet, set his gun on the table beside his plate. Gojyo gulped and nodded, her understood, SHUT YOUR TRAP KAPPA.

"No guns at the table, get it off" Ebony said her eyes hardening as she looked at Sanzo with a glare as the priest glared back and Hakkai tried to calm things down between them.

"Now Ebony, he's just keeping Gojyo quiet, please, just this one exception, please" Hakkai said as Ebony continued to glare at Sanzo.

"If I find one dent in any of my walls or my roof, even the damn floor, I'll kill you with my bare hands priesty" Ebony hissed angrily as Sanzo glared at her before looking away an deciding to ignore her completely, she was nothing to him anyway…wasn't she?

A scream made them all jump as Kerri sat up panting and shaking as Ebony quickly went to calm her friend down as finally Ebony walked back in a quiet follower close behind.

"Everyone this is Kerri…as you know I'm Ebony…once she's sitting you can tell us your names as well" Ebony said as she sat Kerri down in the seat in-between her and Hakkai as Hakkai nodded, that made sense, he smiled gently at Kerri as she looked away and instead stared at the table.

"Well…I'm your brother Hakkai"

"We know that you fool"

"Of course…well then…this is Sanzo, Goku and Gojyo…" Hakkai said as Ebony nodded looking them all over and storing their names away in her memory as she then began to ignore them and turned her attention to Kerri instead as they talked quietly.

"...Kerri? Are you alright?" Her friend looked up from the table, eyes full of tears. She was trying desperatley to fight them back. Ebony excused herself from the table and helped Kerri into the other room, closing the door carefully after seeing her brother's concern.

"Kerri.." She said carefully, like she thought that Kerri would explode with screaming or something along those lines. "I-I-I..." she stuttered and leant against Ebony, tears seeping through her clothes. Ebony stroked her hair, almost crying herself to see her friend this way.

"What's her problem" Demanded Sanzo, glancing at his gun. "Nothing, Sanzo. She doesn't like violence." Snapped Hakkai defensively, everyone went silent - shocked that Hakkai had spoken this way (and to Sanzo of all people!) He looked up from his food and shook his head "She didn't seem to mind it when-" "-she saved your life?" inquired Gojyo grinning. Sanzo picked his gun up and fired at the wall right beside Gojyo's head.

Shy-Phantom – There you have it, chapter 2. Review if you're reading please, we like reviews don't we?

Elendur – Depends on the type of review, since they'll all go to my e-mail, I'm going to be sure to ignore or just delete all flames. So don't bother, why other putting energy into flaming when you can just click out of this story? Twas your choice to read it in the first place, so don't go complaining.